Matteo Manassero is taking it “day by day” over the closing weeks of the DP World Tour season in his quest to earn dual membership status and cap his remarkable return to form.
The Italian is on track to complete a 12-month progression from the Challenge Tour back onto the DP World Tour and then secure a PGA TOUR card via the Race to Dubai Rankings in partnership with Rolex.
With just four events of the 2024 Race to Dubai season to go, starting with this week's Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters in Spain, Manassero is ranked fourth on the DP World Tour’s list of ten players who will earn PGA TOUR cards.
"I know that I'm having a good season, I know that there is something at stake for the end of the season and golf is always like that," says Manassero.
"Everybody has his own goal and his own things to think about.
"I want to stay focused on what makes me be the best version on the golf course and that's what I try to stick to.
"It's day by day, golf can bring you so many different things from one day to the other.
"It's not that easy when you're close to a goal but you haven't quite got it yet so I want to really focus on trying too finish as well as I can."
Manassero, who is opting to miss next week's Genesis Championship ahead of the upcoming DP World Tour Play-Offs, has captured the imagination with his revival in arguably the sport's feelgood story of the year.
After twice winning on the Challenge Tour last season, he found himself a DP World Tour winner for the fifth time in his career at the Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa in March, almost 11 years after he became the youngest winner of the prestigious BMW PGA Championship.
At that very event last month, he secured his eighth top ten of the campaign to climb back into the top 100 in the world for the first time since 2014.
So, while the signs are that it is all but guaranteed he will play on golf’s two biggest tours in the world simultaneously next year, the 31-year-old appears intent on not tempting fate.
"Play well this week and then move on to the last two but I want to really keep my focus to the immediate future and not too far ahead," he adds.
"The end of the season is close and we'll think about that after.
"I try to carry on doing the same things because I want to stay focused on what makes me produce good scores and good golf so I think that's the main thing."
Manassero is making his first visit to Real Club de Golf Sotogrande as a professional on the DP World Tour but does have memories of competing at the venue as an amateur and is relishing the chance to compete again in Spain.
"I love it, it's like a bit of a second home for me," he explains. "I really feel that the crowd appreciates me and knows me and wants me to do well.
"The golf course becomes extremely difficult when it's firm and fast which I think, over the weekend, it might become like that.
"I just like it, the eye likes it, everything is perfect basically like a garden. There is the right amount of grass in the rough that makes you see through the trees and everything. It just has really nice views."
